When I first heard we were doing a battle mode pinbox, my first thought was to make one themed around a fighting game. I love the rivalries that exist in a lot of these games (Ryu & Ken, Scorpion & Sub-zero, etc). However, as I thought about potential fighting games, none of them stood out to me as a particularly interesting theme for Pinball, until I consider Dragon Ball FighterZ. I’ve always loved the energetic, exaggerated, and fast paced fighting of the Dragon Ball franchise, and thought this could work excellent for battle pinball machine. I thought about the tropes of the show, and was drawn to the quick multi-punch shuffles that often happen. I thought this could be well represented by having a large amount of balls in play at once. This would also help capture the eclectic, fast-paced nature of these fights.
When I first conceived using a large amount of multi-ball, I thought back to Hyperball, which i played at the strong. Hyperball features hundred of pinballs that the player can shoot in any direction they aim. The sound and feel all of the balls being constantly shot felt great, and helped give the game a sense of speed and intensity. This gave me confidence that the idea could work for battle pinball.
This machine is going to have some sort of levy system, that will drop all 16 balls for both players at the same time. Players will keep going until all the balls have been drained. Once this happens, players will count the balls drained on their side, and whoever has less balls drained will be the winner of that round. Best 2 out of 3 rounds wins the game.
My initial design sketch has a somewhat barren playfield. I tried adding some holes to the design to help with that, but I’m not particularly pleased with this though. I want to keep the playfield generally very simple. I think a complicated playfield with this many balls will just be anxiety inducing instead of simple fun. That being said, I think right now it’s still a little too barren. I think some obstacles (cardboard walls) that lead balls to drain to the center will be a better move. I’m also considering moving the ball-drop-levy system to the center of the the two pinboxes, so balls will start falling down. I’m not exactly sure how, but I think it’d also be a good idea to have an odd number of balls so that way ties will not be an issue. Perhaps a locked ball staring in the center ramp? Only Iteration will tell.